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Throwing Away the Future

Monday, the Washington Post told the story about Heydi Meija, who was to be deported to Guatemala days after her high school graduation. As the paper noted

In Mejia’s case, what should be done with an illegal immigrant who came to the country at age 4; who speaks better English than Spanish; who wants to attend Randolph-Macon College in Virginia and become a nurse; whose knowledge about modern Guatemala comes in part from what she’s read on Wikipedia?

The claim that it was a matter of law as the Homeland Security memo put it only reveals the odd wonderland we have stumbled into.

One of the things I do is work with high achieving kids, the sort who take AP classes and lead in their school. No doubt that some of the kids I’ve met at school may have been here illegally, but it is simply too important to turn our back on kids like this. If nothing else, the promise of school is that hard work and commitment is a tool for advancement. This sort of ham-handed response violates the basic promise of the school.

And of course, at a different level it is utterly, economically idiotic: our economy needs skilled, well-educated workers and what do we do? Toss them back into the pool. This makes no sense whatsoever.

The all too obvious point is that there needs to be a way to honor and respect these young lives. It is a foolishness to throw away promise for the sake of legal requirements. And really, Democrat that I am, the President should know better.